A city council committee heard dramatically different visions of Brockville roads this week: Quick vs. slow.

On the quick side was former city councillor Henry Noble, who used a global-warming argument to advocate measures to move traffic faster through town to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In the slow lane were Councillors Larry Journal and Leigh Bursey, who are fans of stop signs and speed bumps as ways of calming traffic.

In a presentation to the planning and operations committee, Noble drew a link between stop signs, traffic lights and speed bumps and the crisis of climate change.

Cars in cities burn almost twice as much gas as cars on highways, partly because the cars are sitting idling at lights and stop signs on vacant streets, Noble said.

That unnecessary idling causes pollution, irritates drivers and costs them extra money for gas, he said.

“Does it make sense to have vehicles stopped at a stoplight at 3 a.m. when the only traffic for miles is skunks, cats and raccoons?”

The solution, according to Noble, is changes to allow traffic to flow more smoothly.

He suggested changing the traffic lights to flashing greens, yellows and reds during off-hours; re-timing lights to allow better flows; or employing technology that uses cameras to control lights based on surveillance of traffic.

Noble said that emissions from an idling car at a stoplight in Brockville might seem minuscule in the grand picture of global warming, but small initiatives add up.

“It’s urgent that we get serious about carbon,” said Noble, adding that cities are on the front line of the fight.

But Journal and Bursey took a different tack at the same committee meeting.

Journal presented a motion, approved by the committee, that city staff research and report on ways of slowing traffic in Brockville.

Journal asked the staff to study the pros and cons of such measures as electronic speed signs, speed bumps, three- or four-way stops on residential streets and traffic cameras.

Bursey said that community safety is paramount for him, and that he favours stops and other measures if they make the streets safer.

Journal conceded some of Noble’s points might have merit, however, and he asked that staff include them in the study.

Journal said he has advocated in the past for yield signs to replace stops at some locations.